1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of diagnosing a system, a method of operating an aggregating system for system diagnosis and an aggregating system for system diagnosis.
The present invention may be used in comprehensive diagnoses of systems of various fields including piping for various types of fluid such as steam, compressed air, nitrogen gas or a plurality of steam traps.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a method of diagnosing a system using steam as follows. First, operational conditions of a plurality of steam traps in a client's evaluation target system to be diagnosed are diagnosed by a trap diagnotor. Next, based on the result of this diagnosis, the method calculates a trap-passed steam loss for all the steam traps in the diagnosis evaluation target system (i.e. the aggregated loss of the trap passed steam losses of all of the steam traps in the evaluation target system). Then, the method presents before the client an economic advantage obtained through reduction in the trap-passed steam loss by replacing all the steam traps by new steam traps (see Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application “Kokai” No. 2002-140745
According to the above-described conventional diagnosing method, it is possible to make a clear and effective presentation, before the client, of the economic advantage through reduction in trap-passed steam loss (in other words, the system cost reduction through steam loss reduction). However, even in the limited case of steam using system, in addition to the steam loss resulting from passage of steam through the steam traps, there exist a plurality of other cost-wasting factors such as leakage of various fluids from respective portions of piping, obsolescence or inappropriateness of respective system constructions, as well as obsolescence or inappropriateness of maintenance method. For this reason, with respect to the comprehensive cost saving of the system, the above-described conventional diagnosing method is still insufficient for the client.
In view of the above-described state of the art, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a method of diagnosing a system, a method of operating an aggregating system for system diagnosis and an aggregating system for system diagnosis, which are effective for achieving comprehensive and effective system cost reduction.